But what saith the Scripture?—"I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand; my Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." And what says the apostle—"I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." I have not time to quote all the innumerable passages, but it is absolutely certain that if there be one doctrine in Scripture more clearly revealed than another, it is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the man who doubts that precious truth, has quite as much reason to doubt the Trinity, to doubt the divinity of Christ, or the fact of the atonement; for nothing can be more clear in the plain, commonsense meaning of the words than this, that they who are in Christ have, even today, eternal life and shall never perish. Now since this perseverance is not dependent upon our works, but like all the rest of salvation is an efflux from the bottomless love of God, boasting is manifestly excluded. But once again, and lastly, boasting sometimes asks to be admitted a little into glorification. I fear sometimes that a doctrine which is popular in the Church, about degrees of glory, is not altogether unassociated with the old self-righteousness of ours which is very loath to die.
"One star differeth from another star in glory" is a great truth—but this the stars may do without differing in degrees. One star may shine with one radiance, and another with another; indeed, astronomers tell us that there are many varieties of colour among stars of the same magnitude.
One man may differ from another, without supposing a difference in rank, honour, or degree. For my part, I do not see anything about degrees in glory in Scripture, and I do not believe in the doctrine; at least if there be degrees, mark this, they cannot be according to works, but must be of grace alone.
I cannot consider that because one Christian has been more devoted to Christ than another, therefore there will be an eternal difference, for this is to introduce works; this is to bring in again the old Hagar marriage, and to bring back the child of the bond-woman, whereof God has said, "The son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac."
Oh! brethren, I think we can serve God from some other motive than that base one trying to be greater than our brethren in heaven. If I should get to heaven at all, I do not care who is greater than I am, for if any one shall have more happiness in heaven than I shall, then I shall have more happiness, too; for the sympathy between one soul and another will there be so intense and so great, that all the heavens of the righteous will be my heaven, and therefore, what you have, I shall have, because we shall all be one in fellowship far more perfectly than on earth. The private member will there be swallowed up in the common body. Surely, brethren, if any of you have brighter places in heaven, and more happiness and more joy than I, I will be glad to know it. The prospect does not excite any envy in my soul now, or if it did now it certainly would not then, for I should feel that the more you had the more I should have. Perfect communion in all good things is not compatible with the private enrichment of one above another.
It is all joint-stock in heaven. Even on earth the saints had all things common when they were in a heavenly state, and I am persuaded they will have all things common in glory. I do not believe in gentlemen in heaven, and the poor Christians behind the door; I do believe that our union with each other will be so great, that distinctions will be utterly lost, and that we shall all have such a joint communion, and interest, and fellowship, that there will be no such thing as private possession, private ranks, and private honours—for we shall there, to the fullest extent, be one in Christ. I do believe that Boasting is shut out there, but I think that if there were these degrees in glory, I mean if they are dependent on works done on earth, Boasting would at least get its tail in; if it did not insinuate its whole body, it would at least get some of its unhallowed members over the wall, whereas, the text says it is excluded.
Let me enlarge this one word, and then proceed. It does not say, "Boasting, you are to be allowed to come in and sit down on the floor." No, shut the door and do not let him in at all. "But let me in," says he, "and I will be quiet." No, shut him out altogether. "But at least let me put my foot in." No, exclude him; shut him out altogether; exclude him; bolt the door; put double padlocks on it.
Say once for all, "Boasting, get thee gone; thou are hurled down and broken in pieces, and if thou canst refit thyself, and come once more to the gate to ask admittance, thou shalt be driven away with shame." It is excluded; it cannot be let in, in any sense, in any term, nor in any degree. As Calvin says, "Not a particle of boasting can be admitted, because not a particle of work is admitted into the covenant of grace;" it is of grace from top to bottom, from Alpha to Omega; it is not of man nor by man, not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; and therefore, boasting is excluded by the law of faith.